Journalists film the live telecast of spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon at ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network facility in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
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Indian Spacecraft Touches Down on Moon, First Ever South Pole Landing, Fourth Nation on Moon
The Indian Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft touched down as the first landing ever at the Moon's south pole at 6 p.m. local time as Indians around the world watched in bated breath, hoping to witness the first-ever successful Indian moon landing. Chandrayaan means "mooncraft" in Sanskrit. The craft launched six weeks ago, a longer period than traditional Moon travel. It landed on the Moon with the Vikram ("valorous) lander and the Pragyan ("wisdom") rover. With this, India became the fourth nation to have landed a craft on the Moon, coming after Russia (the Soviet Union at the time), the United States, and China.